


Something More

by vilia



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Both parties are drunk, Drunk Sex, Happy Ending, M/M, Misunderstandings, One Night Stands, POV Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Semi-Public Sex, Smitten Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Will is a bad friend, bad communication skills, no magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2019-12-07 03:00:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18229001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vilia/pseuds/vilia
Summary: It was just a one-night stand… until it happened again. And again…





	1. First Encounter

Arthur had seen him before, rescuing a petite brunette from a muscle-bound oaf who refused to leave her alone.

“A pretty girl like you sitting alone at a bar must be looking for company. Come on. Don’t play hard to get. Just have a drink with me.”

Arthur had already stood up, intending to do something about the prick himself, but before he could do any more, a slim man about Arthur’s age, with dark hair and striking bone structure, was at the young woman’s side.

He said, “Hey, that’s enough. If she were interested, she’d have said yes the first time you asked. All you’re doing now is proving that you’re a complete arse.”

For a moment, Arthur had been sure the oaf was going to haul off and punch the good Samaritan in the face, but he’d just sneered, said, “Cold bitch isn’t worth the trouble,” and stumbled off, beer in hand.

Arthur had wanted to go over and introduce himself then, tell him how brave he was for standing up to a man that would clearly have the advantage in a physical brawl. There’d been no indication that the man would be interested in Arthur the way Arthur was interested in him, but he would never find out if they didn’t at least talk.

The problem was, the bloke had sat talking with that girl the rest of the evening. With Arthur’s luck, the man was probably straight and the girl had seized the opportunity to snatch herself up a nice new boyfriend. That was what Arthur had thought at the time. Now he was revising his opinion.

This time, the bloke sat at a table with another man. His companion was about the same age but not nearly so attractive. Arthur’s initial worries that this was a boyfriend were unfounded judging by the way the plain bloke eyed up the pretty waitresses as they walked by. And when the friend went off to the loo, Arthur found the brave man watching him. At least, he hoped the man was looking at him and not at Gwaine, who was sitting next to him.

The man smiled when he saw Arthur looking back, and Arthur was out of his seat that instant. He’d been here with his friends for hours drinking far more than his usual one or two pints, so maybe his judgement was impaired, but he might never get a better chance.

“Hi, I’m Arthur.” He’d always liked the direct approach. No corny pickup lines. No sad attempts at appearing witty.

“I’m—”

The bloke said his name, Arthur was sure of it. He even repeated it back out loud to try and commit it to memory, but five seconds later, the knowledge had already fled from his brain, because he was too busy deciding what he was going to say next. He wanted to ask the man out. God, looking at him this close, he wanted to skip the date and ask the man to come straight back to his flat.

Words must have been spewing from Arthur’s lips without any conscious decision on his part, and whatever he was saying wasn’t working. The bloke said, “I don’t usually go home with random men I meet at the pub.”

“Usually?” Arthur put his hand on the bloke’s table, leaned forward. This was the sort of thing he’d seen Gwaine do a dozen times. “So I might be the exception?”

The response Arthur got wasn’t any better than the dozen women who’d turned Gwaine down. The man tipped his head back and laughed. That’s what he got for emulating Gwaine instead of sticking to his usual straightforward approach.

“Never done it before so your chances aren’t good. In a… What’s the word I’m looking for?” The man flailed around a little, knocking over a pair of empty bottles in the process. “Uhh… Histor… yeah, a historical context.”

Arthur usually wasn’t so pushy, would usually take a hint like that and make a timely exit, but the man wasn’t looking at him as if he wanted Arthur to leave. Arthur tried to help right the bottles and managed to knock a few more over in the process.

“Are you pissed?” the man said.

“Yeah.” There was no use hiding it. He hadn’t had so much to drink in ages. “That all right?”

“Sure. So am I.” The man had a brilliant laugh.

They’d have been better off if Arthur’s flat were more than the five-minute walk away that it was, might have given them a chance to sober up a bit. As it was, they stumbled and laughed the whole way, making enough noise to draw the notice of passersby.

For a man that had never come home with a stranger, he was awfully handsy. As soon as Arthur had the door to his flat closed, the man was on him, stripping off his shirt, trailing kissed down his chest and onto his stomach. Arthur was just as eager. And he really shouldn’t have had so much to drink because things didn’t usually go nearly so well when this much alcohol was involved, and tomorrow he probably wouldn’t be able to remember as much of this as he would like.

-x-x-

When Arthur woke the next morning, the man was already gone, and about the only thing he could recall with any clarity after their initially fumblings was a short moment just before he’d fallen asleep. They’d been lying on their sides, facing each other, and Arthur had been able to simply gaze into the man’s eyes and smile. He never did that with any of his other hookups.

Arthur rubbed at his eyes, sat up, and finally noticed the folded note sitting propped up on the spare pillow. Suppressing the urge to throw something, he picked up the note.

My uncle texted with an emergency. Sorry if I’m breaking some kind of one-night stand etiquette by leaving while you’re still asleep.  
M—

M?

Fuck! What did the M stand for again? It was the only letter Arthur could read. Not because the other letters were too messy to make out, but because the man literally signed his name with an M and a line. It wasn’t perfectly straight, but there wasn’t nearly enough variation to form letters of any kind. It could be almost anything—Mark, Morgan, Mason… Wait, was that a dot above the line? Michael then? …Melvin? Not that it mattered now. He’d probably never see the man again. Arthur didn’t even have his phone number.

He tried to look on the bright side. At least he didn’t have to go through the awkwardness of admitting that he’d forgotten the name of the man he’d had sex with. He really needed to take a hard look at his life choices. Why was he bringing a man like M. back to his flat for one night of sex, when he could have asked the man on a proper date to begin with, then had the potential of a lifetime of sex, among other things. Arthur was shit at relationships, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want one, that he didn’t need one.


	2. Second Encounter

To say that Arthur went to the Leaping Dragon looking for M. wouldn’t be entirely accurate, but he certainly didn’t turn down any opportunity he had to go and spent every minute he was there with a heightened awareness of his surroundings, hoping the man would show up again one of these nights.

His chances weren’t good. Arthur saw through that “emergency” excuse. No doubt M. had just made something up because he wanted to leave before they had to interact sober. If he’d wanted Arthur to contact him again, he could have left his number.

Arthur cycled through various rationalizations to convince himself that this wasn’t as big of a loss as it felt. Even if he’d managed to ask M. out on a proper date, it was highly unlikely that things would have worked out between them anyway. They probably had nothing in common beyond the physical attraction.

More than a month later—after he’d given up hope of seeing the mysterious M. again—Arthur was nursing a pint while waiting for his friend, Gwen, to come back to their table, when a shadow filled the periphery of his vision.

Arthur looked up and there he was. His heart sputtered into an unexpected sprint. He’d convinced himself that M. wasn’t nearly so fit as he remembered. He’d told himself that he’d been too far away to accurately judge the first time he’d seen the man, and that it had just been the liquor talking the second time. He was wrong. M. was even more attractive than he remembered. He had on a casual V-neck jumper and jeans that Arthur wanted to peel off his legs.

“Drinking all alone tonight?” the man said.

Was he teasing? They hadn’t talked enough for Arthur to make a fair assessment.

“My friend had to take a call from her brother. Bit hard to hear inside the pub so she stepped out for a minute.”

“Erm.” The man paused, looked a little unsure of himself. “Mind if I steal her seat for a minute?”

Arthur gestured to the empty chair. “Be my guest.”

“I know this is…” the man said. “I mean, tell me if I’m out of line because… Wait, you’re not pissed now are you?”

“This is all I’ve had tonight,” Arthur said, tipping his half-full glass slightly and setting it back down.

“Good. That’s good. Because I thought, maybe, if you want, of course, I thought maybe we could go back to yours again tonight.”

Arthur tried to keep his smile small. M. was clearly stone cold sober, and nervous as hell, but had still summoned up the courage to ask Arthur for sex. Some might find it brazen, but Arthur liked it, found it oddly endearing.

_Say no, Arthur. Tell him you want to take him out to dinner instead._

But M. was offering sex and that was hard to resist. Not only because of Arthur’s own desires but because he had an unexpected compulsion to give the man whatever he asked for. And so, a large part of him wanted to just say yes, but... Well, there was still the issue of the man’s name lingering out there and if he asked right now, Arthur wouldn’t be surprise if the man was so angry that he changed his mind and stormed off. Then again, if he waited…

“Sorry. You’re hesitant. I’ll go.” M. stood.

“No, wait.” Arthur lunged forward in his seat, grabbed M.’s arm for a moment, then let go. He didn’t want to be aggressive; he just wanted to make it clear to M. that he’d got the wrong idea. “We can… We can do that. It’s just… I’m really sorry. You have no idea. I swear I’m not just some arrogant prat…”

“Arthur,” M. said. “You’re starting to ramble.”

Well, fuck. M. remembered his name. Maybe… What if he could cover up his faulty memory until he had a chance to figure this out on his own? He might be able to snag M.’s phone in the middle of the night. Or if that was too risky, he could wait for someone else to say his name, or hope he needed to refer to himself in third person for some reason.

That could take weeks. _Months._ The longer he dragged this out the worse it was going to be.

“I know. And I promise I’m getting to the point.”

Arthur studied M.’s bemused expression carefully, waiting for the moment it turned to anger.

“I was…” Arthur paused. He hated admitting to being nervous. “…a little on edge before—in addition to being drunk. And I forget things even when I’m sober, so…”

“Ah. You don’t remember my name.”

“It’s inexcusable. I feel like an idiot. I really am so sorry. I know it starts with an M, but I couldn’t make out the rest of your signature.” Arthur was pretty certain he was starting to blush and felt grateful for the dim lighting of the pub.

The anger he’d been expecting never came. The man laughed. Laughed _at_ him, which wasn’t great, but on the scale of how this could have gone, it wasn’t anywhere near the catastrophic end that Arthur had been imagining.

“It’s Merlin.”

“Oh, hell,” Arthur said. “How on earth could I forget that? Arthur and Merlin.” Like they were made for each other.

Merlin stopped laughing, but still had a smile. “Don’t beat yourself up too much. I thought your name was Andrew for a day or two. Then I remembered that when you first introduced yourself, I’d pictured you holding aloft Excalibur, and the memory clicked back into place.”

Arthur sagged back into his seat. “God, that’s a relief. I was really hoping to see you again, but was dreading having to ask for your name after we’d already slept together.”

“Speaking of sleeping together, do you need to wait on your friend?”

Arthur could already feel his body beginning to take an obvious interest in what Merlin was proposing. He slid out of his seat and stood up. “I can say goodbye on our way out.”

When they got back to his flat, Arthur said, “Do you want to sit down? Talk for a bit?”

“That’s really sweet of you to offer, Arthur, but you know, I’ve had an awful day, and I’d really love it if you would just fuck me.”

Arthur nearly choked on his own spit, had to cough while trying not to sound surprised. “All right. The erm, bedroom’s back this way.” Arthur tipped his head to his left.

Merlin smiled. “I remember. I was sober when I left here last time.”

“Oh. Right.”

Merlin proved his point by leading the way to the bedroom. They stood a few feet apart watching each other awkwardly for a few seconds when they arrived. Then they were touching again and all the awkwardness melted away.

Arthur had really been missing out last time, being so drunk. Everything about being with Merlin was incredible. His skin felt alive when Merlin touched him, and his cock felt harder than ever, even before Merlin made his way below the belt.

They stripped off each other’s clothes and climbed onto the bed. Arthur fished a condom and lube out from the drawer of his bedside table. Then he paused a second and grabbed an extra condom and a small pair of scissors. Merlin said he’d had a hard day, and Arthur wanted to make him forget every bad thing in his head.

Merlin rolled onto his stomach, pushed himself up onto his hands and knees while Arthur tore open one of the condom packets. He unrolled the condom, used the scissors to cut off the tip and the rim, made a single cut up the center, and pulled the latex out into something resembling a rectangle. That done, he squeezed a bit of lube onto his palm, transferred it to the finger of his other hand, and touched it right to Merlin’s hole.

Merlin squirmed a little at the cool touch but didn’t complain. Arthur pulled at his cheeks, said, “Move your knees out a little more?”

Merlin was quick to comply, and Arthur got his flat piece of latex, leaned his face in and used the cut-up condom as a barrier to spread the lube with his tongue.

Merlin gasped. “Arthur, that’s—! I mean…”

“Tell me if you don’t like it. Or if you do like it.”

“No, I do. But that’s… Not that I’m not clean, erm, in either sense, but… I haven’t been tested in a while.”

Arthur kissed his left arse cheek, slid a soothing hand over the other and down the back of his thigh.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a dental dam. You can just enjoy it.”

The tension in Merlin’s muscles began to fade, and Arthur got back to work. It was more cumbersome with the barrier, but Arthur kept at it until he had Merlin’s entrance nice and relaxed. After that, he tested their progress using his fingers and used the opportunity to get the lube worked in deeper.

Around the time Merlin started saying, “Come on. Promise I’m ready,” Arthur gave in and pulled away to get himself prepared.

“ _Ar-thur._ ”

Arthur wanted to get his hands back on him, just to soothe that irritated tone away, but what Merlin really wanted wasn’t his hands.

“It’s all right. I’m rolling the condom on now.”

Merlin craned his neck back to look at Arthur over his shoulder, and Arthur felt struck by how consumed he looked in the moment—his jaw slack, perspiration making his skin glow, his pupils dominating his eyes despite the good light.

Arthur had to remind himself not to get too distracted and said, “See? All ready for you.”

“Fuck!”

Arthur ran a soothing hand over the small of Merlin’s back and around his hip. Merlin was still watching him when Arthur brushed the head of his cock against the man’s entrance. Arthur stared back and as he nudged himself in, felt Merlin purposely relax even further as if welcoming him in.

Arthur tried to fuck him slowly, tried to draw the experience out as long as possible, but it was a hopeless cause and soon he was going all out, his taut balls slapping Merlin’s cheeks, his cock retreating so far on each thrust he was in danger of slipping out entirely before driving back in over and over. His rhythm began to falter but Merlin wasn’t any better off. He pushed himself back with each of Arthur’s thrusts and let out a string of incoherencies that Arthur would be wanking over for the rest of his life.

“Arth…” Merlin struggled to say. “So close.”

Arthur leaned over and reached around to stroke Merlin's cock as best as he could. He’d been dripping pre-cum onto Arthur’s sheets but had resisted the urge to touch himself.

Merlin’s cock began to pulse in his hand, and Arthur was soon after spilling into the condom, his vision going white and his mind devoid of anything but the all-consuming brilliance of the moment. He stayed where he was, turned his head to rest his cheek between Merlin’s shoulder blades as he caught his breath.

The sex last time couldn’t possibly have been this good. No matter how drunk, Arthur would have remembered.

He slipped out of Merlin, making the man grunt. “Sorry. You’ll probably be a little sore tomorrow.”

“’s all right,” Merlin slurred, sounding like he was still coming down from his orgasm. “Just a reminder that something great happened to me. I’d rather spend the whole day tomorrow remembering this than everything that went wrong earlier in the day.”

Arthur wanted to ask, wanted to comfort him in other ways too, but he barely knew the man. They’d had sex twice now, but the only thing he really knew for sure about Merlin besides a few details about how he liked to be touched, was his name. It seemed presumptuous to assume that Merlin would want to share all his troubles.

“Glad I could do my part to brighten your day,” Arthur said, rolling onto his back and shifting over so Merlin had a clean spot to lay down next to him. He looked tired, and not just the delightfully worn-out look of a man who’d come all over Arthur’s sheets a few moments ago. A deeper kind of fatigue lingered under the surface.

“Yeah, you’re a real boy scout, aren’t you? Going out of your way to help me and all. Hope I haven’t been too much of a burden.” Merlin poked at his ribs, trying to be playful, but the exhaustion was showing through more and more with each passing moment.

“Mmm. Yes. I’m very generous like that. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you need my services again in the future. I dare say, I think I’d be willing to accommodate you.”

Merlin’s eyes fluttered shut, then flashed wide open again. He sat up with an unhappy groan.

Arthur stayed where he was, looked up at him with heavy eyelids. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m about to fall asleep.”

“That’s not a problem,” Arthur said with a little laugh. That wasn’t remotely close to being a problem. If Merlin stayed the whole night, they might have sex again in the morning. There was no downside.

“I’ve got to be in to work early tomorrow. Bad day, remember?”

“Hmm. Doesn’t mean you have to leave so soon. What time is ‘early?’ I can make sure you’re up with enough time to run home for a change of clothes.”

Merlin didn’t quite look convinced yet. Arthur laid a hand on top of Merlin’s, ran his fingers up his arm to his elbow.

“You really do look like you need sleep more than anything else right now, and you’re already in a big warm bed.”

“Well,” Merlin said, sagging back against the headboard. “That’s true enough.”

Arthur slipped out of bed just long enough to dispose of the condoms and get a damp flannel to clean themselves up. He hadn’t bothered to put his pants back on and he could feel Merlin staring at his body with appreciation. He didn’t even look away when Arthur caught him in the act. Instead he smiled, said, “It’s no wonder I like you so much.”

Arthur paused a minute before he climbed back into bed, letting Merlin stare at his naked body. He was looking forward to that morning sex already.

-x-x-

Arthur’s mobile rang from where it sat on his bedside table. It wasn’t the alarm tone he’d set to help Merlin get up in time for work, and his sleep hazed mind took a moment to comprehend that fact. He could feel Merlin beginning to stir next to him, since Arthur had apparently abandoned his pillow at some point in favour of sharing Merlin’s. The man didn’t seem to have minded. He’d rolled onto his side and thrown an arm and a leg over Arthur’s body so that they fit together in a more compact configuration. His hold tightened slightly as Arthur started to reach for the phone. Arthur didn’t want him to let go either except that he didn’t want Merlin’s sleep to be disrupted any more than it already was, and whoever was calling was very persistent. When the phone finally sent the caller over to Arthur’s voice mail, they must have hung up and immediately redialed, because no sooner had the ringing stopped than it started back up again.

Arthur wormed his way out of Merlin’s grip, slapped his hand over the annoying technological marvel, and struggled out of bed so he could take the call in the next room and let Merlin go back to sleep.

“Arthur!” Gwen said on the other end of the line when he finally answered. “Thank God I reached you!” she said between sobs.

Suddenly on alert, Arthur said, “Gwen, what’s happened?”

“It’s my dad…”

In broken sentences interspersed with full out breakdowns, Gwen told him that her father had just died. He’d been in hospital last week for a knee replacement and everything had gone smoothly. Then last night he’d developed an unpleasant reaction to one of his medications. When Elyan had called earlier, it had only been a minor thing, but he’d deteriorated rapidly after he’d been taken to hospital. The doctors had found a bleed in his brain and despite emergency surgery to relieve pressure and stop the blood loss, his heart stopped beating. They hadn’t been able to get it restarted.

He was gone, just like that. Elyan had thundered off in anger and was refusing to answer his phone. Gwen just wanted to go home, but wasn’t in any state to drive and it was too early for the bus.

“No, it’s fine Gwen. I’ll come pick you up. I’ll be right there.”

He went back to his bedroom, started throwing on his clothes from the night before.

“You’re leaving?” Merlin said, still groggy.

“Sorry,” Arthur whispered. “Go back to sleep, you still have a few hours before you need to be up.”

“But… something’s wrong.” He was sitting up now. Arthur could barely make out his features in the dark.

“Yeah. You remember Gwen, my friend from the pub.”

“Talking with her brother.”

“Right. Their dad died about an hour ago.”

“Oh my God, that’s terrible.”

“Yeah. Completely unexpected. Gwen’s a mess and her brother took off without her. I’m going to go pick her up and take her home. Wait,” Arthur said because it looked like Merlin was climbing out of bed too. “You don’t have to leave.”

“You barely know me. You really want me in your flat when you’re not here?”

Arthur could maybe see his point, if Merlin had been any other random shag. But he wasn’t. There was just something about him. Something Arthur couldn’t quite put into words.

Arthur put his hand on Merlin’s shoulder, pushed him back onto the bed. “It’s fine. I promise. If you’d wanted to rob me or something, you could have done that while I was passed out last time. Just…” Arthur pulled a shirt on over his head. “I probably won’t be back by the time you have to leave for work.” He went over to his drawer for a pair of fresh socks. “Lock up when you leave?”

“Don’t worry, Arthur. You can trust me,” Merlin said, easily persuaded.

Arthur didn’t know what came over him. He paused on the verge of leaving, went back to the bed, leaned down and kissed Merlin on the forehead. “I know I can.”

It wasn’t until he was on his way home from Gwen’s that he realized he still didn’t have Merlin’s phone number. Any hope that Merlin would leave him another note, this time with his contact information, was soon dashed when he arrived home and found the only evidence that the man had ever been there at all was the used condoms sitting in the bottom of the rubbish bin.

Arthur didn’t understand it. It wasn’t simply that they were good together in bed, but even afterward they seemed to have a connection. How was it that Merlin didn’t want to give Arthur the ability to contact him again, whether just more of what they’d had so far or an opportunity at a real relationship?


	3. Third Encounter

Arthur took a day and a half off work to attend the visitation and funeral services for Mr. Thompson, not only because the man had been his friend’s dad, but because he’d always been kind to Arthur, even back in sixth form when he and Gwen had dated for a while. He’d spent a lot of time as a teenager wishing his own father were more like Gwen’s.

Arthur’s father wasn’t a completely horrible person, and Arthur did love him, but it wasn’t an easy love. Arthur worked for him, was meant to take over the business one day, but it wasn’t just at work where Uther Pendragon reigned over his life as if he were a king instead of a CEO and father. He had a litany of complaints about Arthur’s private life. His flat wasn’t in an exclusive enough area. Arthur associated with people that worked below him and even worse, with people in insufficiently prestigious occupations—like Gwaine who was a fitness instructor at the gym Arthur went to (which also wasn’t up to Uther’s standards) and Leon who sold real estate.

“It would be understandable, Arthur, if he were in commercial real estate, but the buying and selling homes is just so common.”

And that wasn’t even starting on Arthur’s love life.

“When are you going to give up this notion of preferring men, Arthur? You dated a perfectly lovely young woman in university. What was her name again? Silvia? Samantha?”

He’d been trying to think of Sophia, and she had turned out to be horrendous. Her once wealthy family had been about to file bankruptcy and she’d thought to lure Arthur into a quick marriage to shore up the coffers. He’d only went out with her in the first place because he’d still been trying to make his father happy back then. Arthur had all but given up on ever being able to please the man now. He even took exception to the pub Arthur liked to frequent, though part of that apparently stemmed from some strange animosity between Uther and Gareth Killian, the pub’s owner.

Following Mr. Thompson’s funeral, Arthur was in a dark mood and wanted more than ever to see Merlin again. Not for sex this time. He just wanted to talk, or to sit close and not say anything at all, because what the hell was there to say? All he could think about was Gwen and her father, about how they’d deserved so much more time together, about his own mother who’d also been taken from this world before her time. Maybe Merlin could do all the talking. Arthur wouldn’t mind listening to anything Merlin wanted to share with him. It would be a pleasant distraction.

As much as Arthur wanted to see Merlin again, he wasn’t in the mood to sit at the pub waiting for him to show up, and that was his only option. It wasn’t like he knew where Merlin worked, or where he lived, or anything other than the fact that sometimes he came to the Leaping Dragon.

He sat at home alone instead and moped. After several weeks of that, he tried going out for just a few minutes on Friday, the only day of the week he’d ever seen Merlin at the pub. He popped in, walked all the way to the back, turned around, and left.

He tried again the next week too and was about to walk out the door, when someone tugged on his elbow. He turned to see Merlin grinning at him. Without saying a word, Merlin started leading Arthur away from the entrance. Arthur thought he was taking him to a table, but he wasn’t. He went straight to the loo and any thought that maybe Merlin was hoping they’d be able to have an easier time hearing each other in here was squashed when Merlin pushed Arthur against the door—effectively blocking anyone else from entering—and started kissing him in a way that suggested an interest in more.

Arthur did a quick scan of the room, noting thankfully that no one else was around. “Hey,” he said, gently pushing Merlin away, but still holding onto the man’s arms in case he got the wrong idea and decided to bolt. “Slow down.” Arthur had never had sex in any public space before, let alone someplace so cliché as this. It wasn’t something he’d ever thought he might be willing to consider… until now.

“Sorry,” Merlin panted. He looked at his watch. And who the hell still wore a watch like that these days? Arthur had a nice watch for special occasions. He wore it to weddings and important business meetings with clients or potential clients. He’d worn it to Mr. Thompson’s funeral. Merlin’s watch wasn’t like that. It was digital, but not a nice sports watch, not a Fitbit or a Garmin. It probably wasn’t even worth the price of replacement batteries. “If I’m not at work in forty minutes I’ll get the sack.”

Arthur wanted to ask, ‘Where do you work, Merlin? What do you do? What kinds of things do you like to do for fun?’ He wanted to ask, ‘What’s your goddamn phone number?’ and ‘Will you join me for dinner tomorrow night?’

Arthur didn’t get to ask his questions, because Merlin was lowering himself to his knees, an act that brought his gorgeous mouth dangerously close to Arthur’s crotch. Arthur felt his brain function rapidly dwindling to a level that would support only primal basics and made the mistake of letting go of Merlin’s arms, which the man then used to unbutton his trousers.

Arthur groaned in obvious approval, but said, “We need to talk, Merlin,” in a valiant attempt to stay focused on his long-term goal. “Want… your number.”

“Yeah?” Merlin grinned up at him and for an instant, Arthur thought he’d finally done it, but then Merlin was pulling out a bright red condom and rolling it onto Arthur’s hard cock.

Arthur dropped his head back onto the door and groaned. “Is that flavoured?” he said as Merlin swirled his tongue around the tip.

“Mmm,” Merlin said with his mouth full, then drew back. “Says it’s cherry.” He left a kiss on Arthur’s thigh, tugged gently at one of his balls. “Doesn’t taste like any kind of cherry I’ve ever eaten.”

Either Merlin just normally carried around favoured condoms to give random men blowjobs, or he’d specifically planned this. Arthur thought it was more likely the latter. There was nothing wrong with his technique. Arthur liked everything he did. Liked it a lot, judging by how quickly Merlin was able to make him come. But he wasn’t doing anything that took a lot of practice, and when they first met, Merlin said he’d never had a one-night stand before.

Too soon Arthur was spent, his cock dangling soft between his legs while he stood there like an idiot with his trousers and pants still around his ankles. Merlin staggering to his feet to kiss him. The residual flavouring from the condom wasn’t all that great, but Arthur didn’t mind; he was far more focused on the erection brushing against his abdomen. He reached down to palm Merlin through his jeans, but the man pushed his hand away. “Another time,” he said.

A beeping went off on Merlin’s watch, and he stepped back, leaned down to pull Arthur’s pants and trousers back up, tug up the zip, redo the button, and straighten his shirt. Merlin kissed him again, grabbing at his shoulders and maneuvering him away from the door. Arthur followed along, feeling breathless.

“Sorry,” Merlin said. “I really have to go.”

“But Mer—” It was too late. He’d already slipped out the door.

It took Arthur longer than it should have to realize that he wasn’t helpless in this situation—that all he had to do was go after him. He ran a hand through his hair, pulled the door open, and ploughed straight into that blustering oaf that Merlin had confronted the very first time Arthur saw him.

The oaf didn’t want to accept Arthur’s hasty apology. He shoved Arthur hard in the shoulder, clearly spoiling for a fight. Arthur surmised that was his default setting.  By the time he talked the man down and made his way out onto the pavement, Merlin was nowhere in sight.


	4. Fourth Encounter

All around him people toiled away to the varied cadences of treadmills, rowers, spin bikes, and weight machines. The gym was usually Arthur’s place to mentally unwind. He wasn’t having much success with that today. He couldn’t stop thinking about his last encounter with Merlin.

Arthur didn’t blame himself for still not having the man’s number. This was entirely Merlin’s fault. It was beyond forgetfulness, or any nervousness that Arthur wouldn’t want it. Arthur had even asked, and Merlin had distracted him. On purpose, it felt like. And that put a stinging spike in Arthur’s gut. It didn’t make sense. Merlin wanted to see him again. He’d admitted as much.

Arthur could only think of one explanation. Merlin was married. Or at least in a committed relationship of some type and didn’t want his husband or boyfriend—or fuck, maybe wife or girlfriend (because Arthur had no way of knowing that Merlin wasn’t closeted or simply bisexual)—finding incriminating phone calls or text messages on his mobile. He felt like such a fool. How could he have not seen it before? Arthur trusted people too much. That was a documented fact. He trusted people, and they always let him down.

“Saw your boyfriend again last night, didn’t you?” Gwaine said, stepping up beside Arthur as he neared the halfway mark of his thirty-minute run.

“What?” Arthur puffed.

“You always have extra energy for the treadmill after you’ve seen him, but you’re also glaring at everyone even more than usual. I guess that means you still don’t have his number.”

Arthur slowed his pace down to a comfortable walk—he would add more time to his run to make up for it—and waited a few moments to catch his breath. “First of all, Merlin’s not my boyfriend. And second, no, I don’t have his number. I’m not going to get it either. He’s fucking married, Gwaine.”

“What? He told you that?”

“Well, no, but how else do you explain it?” He listed out the facts.

Gwaine shrugged, patted him on the shoulder. “Sorry for the bad luck, mate. Maybe you should add a couple miles to your run today.” Then he walked away to help a pretty blonde woman with her running posture.

He tried to forget about Merlin after that, vowed to stay away from the Leaping Dragon. It made him sick to think that Merlin had deceived him like that. Every once in a while, a nagging little voice in the back of his head would try to convince him that there might be another explanation, but mostly, the more he thought about it, the more questions he had. Was Merlin even his real name? Arthur and Merlin? It sounded a little suspicious now he thought about it. Merlin was probably using an alias as another way to deny everything if he were caught.

-x-x-

More than two months later, Arthur found himself having lunch with his father at Excalibur, one of the city’s most exclusive restaurants. They were supposed to be talking about the business and their strategic goals for the next five years, but it had turned from light talk of Morgana, Arthur’s half-sister, to talk of Arthur’s personal life. Again.

“You really should meet Vivian, Arthur. Her father is a good friend of mine.”

Arthur wanted to laugh. Uther didn’t have friends. He only had business acquaintances.

“And she’s quite pretty. I’m sure she’d catch your eye.”

Arthur was tired of trying to explain that while, yes, he was technically attracted to both men and women, he had a strong preference for men, not so much on the physical side, but on the emotional side. He might be able to have a fling with a woman, but it would never turn into more, and Arthur wanted more. Damn it, he deserved more.

Arthur started to tune his father out. He’d heard this lecture before after all, and that was when he spotted him. Merlin—completely out of place in khaki trousers, a navy dress shirt, and matching baseball cap—was presenting a thick envelope to Bayard Mercer, the second wealthiest man in the city. Mr. Mercer signed for the package, and Merlin turned to leave.

Arthur pushed back his chair and stood. “Sorry, Father. I, erm… Need to make a call. Forgot.” And he strode off, trying to catch up with Merlin before the man was back out on the street.

Arthur made it just before Merlin was to the doors, grabbed him by the elbow and guided him through the first doorway he saw that wasn’t the exit. It turned out to be the cloakroom, closed at this time of day due to the warm afternoon weather.

“Arthur!” Merlin had the audacity to smile at him like this was a peasant, though unexpected surprise. “You haven’t been back to the pub in a while. I was starting to worry something might have happened to you.”

Arthur flexed his fists, tried to calm down. He didn’t want to cause a scene.

Merlin’s smile was fading. “Hey.” He reached out to put a hand on Arthur’s upper arm. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve figured it out, Merlin. I know.”

“Know what? I have no idea what you’re on about.”

Arthur didn’t trust himself to say anything more. He’d decided to forget about Merlin, not chase him down and verbally accost him. And what right did he even have to be so angry anyway? It’s not like he was the one that Merlin was breaking a commitment to.

In the awkward silence that followed, Merlin set his clipboard on a shelf, dug into his back pocket, and pulled out a folded piece of battered paper. “Erm, here.” Merlin unfolded the page, made a half-hearted attempt to smooth out the wrinkles, and handed it to Arthur.

He took it out of reflex and glanced down. It was a document from a local hospital. “What’s this?”

“Well… I mean, just look. I went in and had an STI panel run. I know we’ve been really careful and everything, but just in case you were worried or paranoid or whatever. You don’t have to be, see?” Merlin leaned in, canted his head to read the paper sideways and pointed to a line at the bottom saying results for all the tests had come back negative.

Arthur ran a hand over his face. What was Merlin thinking? Who the hell gets tested to prove to a random fuck that they were clean? And besides that, “You do know this doesn’t mean anything if you’re sleeping with someone else, right?”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“That means anyone else. No matter how long you’ve been together or how much he swears up and down you’re the only one.”

“Arthur, I haven’t… Wait a minute. Is that what this is all about? Did someone tell you that? Was it Will?”

“Who’s Will?”

“I’m sick of his lectures. ‘You’re not the type of person who does this, Merlin.’ What a twat! He’s supposed to be my friend.”

“Your boyfriend?”

“What the fuck, Arthur? You think I’m the type of person that would cheat on his boyfriend for a little fun with you? And no, Will’s just a mate that thinks I shouldn’t be wasting my time on you. Maybe he was right. For the record, I haven’t slept with anyone since we hooked up the first time. Not that I couldn’t if I wanted to. You don’t have any claim over me.”

“No, I didn’t mean that.”

“So you just think I’m a cheater?”

Arthur puffed up his chest. “Don’t get all indignant. What am I supposed to think? I know next to nothing about you. And you’re acting all mysterious. Popping up for sex then gone again before I can find out the tiniest thing. I don’t even know your last name for Christ’s sake.”

Merlin trained his eyes on the floor.

“Mine is Pen—”

“Pendragon. Yes, I know. Your father owns half the city.”

“How—”

“Sorry. I helped myself to a glass of water before I left your flat last time, and you had mail sitting out on the worktop. I didn’t touch anything, I swear. Well, apart from the glass, I mean, and the cupboard. I wasn’t snooping. I—”

Arthur rolled his eyes and cut Merlin off. “And your name…?” He wasn’t worried about a fucking glass, or even his mail.

“Oh, right. Emerson.”

Merlin pointed to the embroidered logo above the left breast pocket of his shirt. There was a matching emblem on his hat. Emerson Courier Service. Arthur knew that company. They used them sometimes at work to run sensitive documents to and from clients. His father supposedly knew the owner from back in his university days.

“And Merlin is honestly your real name?”

 _“Yes!”_ Merlin said with the scowl of a man who’d had to justify himself his entire life. “My mum wasn’t supposed to be able to have children at all, so when I came along she said it was like a magical blessing and named me Merlin.”

Arthur relaxed slightly. “Then why are you acting so mysterious? I know I’m not crazy. I tried to ask for your phone number last time and you purposely distracted me.”

“Sorry.”

“So you admit it?”

“I was trying to avoid embarrassment.”

“Embarrassment? For being asked for your number when you’d just gone down on your knees in a public loo?”

“I didn’t want you to know I don’t have one.”

“What?” Arthur laughed. “You seriously expect me to believe you don’t have a mobile? Everyone has one these days. I’ve seen homeless people with them!”

Plus, after that first night, he’d said his uncle had texted with an emergency. If he wasn’t lying now, then he’d been lying then.

“I know! All right? This is why I was avoiding it.”

“Are you some anti-technology nut?” Arthur was still thinking of that note Merlin had written, wondering if he would take the offered excuse, and Arthur could catch him in a lie.

“No, I just… I had one, but my mum had a bad fall. Broke her wrist and her phone. She couldn’t afford to get a new one so I lied. I told her I was upgrading mine anyway and gave her mine.”

“And you didn’t just go get a new one because…”

“I’m working on it, all right? I promise you can have the number when I get it… Assuming you still want it.”

Arthur had to take a minute to think this all through. Merlin was claiming that he had reasonable explanations for everything. Giving his mum his mobile did seem like the kind of thing that Arthur would expect from the man who stood up for the harassed stranger at the pub. And Arthur knew where he worked now, so that was something too.

Arthur wanted to believe him, knew that was the reason he needed to be cautious. He wasn’t feeling cautious though. He felt like he was getting himself in deeper, because Merlin could have very reasonably taken offense and walked away, never to be seen again. Instead, he was hanging around, defending himself against potentially warrantless accusations. And apparently defying the advice of a friend to see him. Why? For a convenient shag? Merlin’s friend claimed he was acting out of character, and Merlin himself had said he’d never gone home with a stranger before Arthur. He couldn’t imagine he was the first one to proposition Merlin in that way. Maybe Merlin was investing emotionally the same way Arthur was trying to stop himself from doing.

“Sorry.” Arthur said at last. “I have a history of being stabbed in the back. I guess I’ve come to expect the worst from everyone, even if it’s not deserved.”

Merlin’s eyes went soft.

Arthur said, “I’ll give you my number instead. You can contact me when you get your new phone.”

“I’d really like that, Arthur.”

Arthur let his posture sag. He needed to get back to his lunch. He might feel better about this… whatever this thing was he had with Merlin, but his father was still waiting to tell him just how bad an idea Merlin was, purely on the basis of his genitalia.

“What’s that look for? I think you look more miserable now than when we were arguing.”

Arthur shook his head. “I’m here with my father. We were supposed to talk business, but when I go back out there, he’s just going to tell me what a disappointment I am.”

Merlin’s expression shifted into a troubled frown. “Is there… Is there anything I can do?”

Arthur thought of his father expounding on how he thought Arthur needed a woman in his life… and in his bed, dredged up the memory of when he’d first told his dad he was attracted to men.

“If you insist on this gay thing, Arthur,” he’d said, “then I trust at the very least that you’ll always be the real man in the relationship. Don’t let any of those nancy boys turn you into the woman in bed.”

Arthur had stared at him in disbelief. What sort of parent talked like that to their child? He’d confessed feelings of his heart, and his father wanted to tell him what he could and couldn’t do in bed with a lover. He would go ballistic if he knew what Arthur was doing right now, that he’d left a ‘very important business lunch’ to chase after a man he’d slept with several times over the course of the last few months, if he knew how desperate Arthur was to turn their relationship into something more meaningful.

“You know what, Merlin? Yeah.” He paused for dramatic effect. “You can fuck me.”

Merlin laughed a little, like he thought Arthur was joking. “Don’t tempt me.”

“No, I mean it. Fuck me. Now. Right here.”

“Arthur, I don’t have a condom. Or lube.”

“You just showed me your test results. I have mine on my phone from when I broke up with my last boyfriend. He was a cheating piece of shit.” He pulled out his mobile, scrolled through his old email to the right file. “This was just before we met.”

Merlin wasn’t taking the initiative, so he held the screen right in front of his face.

“I had someone over once after that first time when I didn’t expect to ever see you again, but nothing happened. And I think I might have a packet of lube in my wallet. If not, you can just use spit.” This idea was really growing on him.

“I’m not fucking you with spit, Arthur. Have you ever tried it before? It’s not pleasant. Not in my experience. I can’t imagine you’d like it.”

Arthur had the sudden urge to throttle whatever arsehole had the audacity to involve Merlin in any kind of sex that he didn’t absolutely love. At the same time, he wanted Merlin to be that sort of arsehole and just do what Arthur asked him to do without regard for whether he would like it or not.

“If you really want me to fuck you, we can meet up later.”

“No. Now.”

Arthur dug into his jacket pocket for his wallet, found an old packet of lube stuffed between a gym membership card for a place he didn’t go to anymore and a shopper’s card that he never used. The packet was so old and worn, half the ink had been scuffed off. Arthur stepped forward and dropped it into the breast pocket of Merlin’s shirt.

“God, but I can tell you’re used to having people do whatever you say. This isn’t a good idea.” He looked around. “It’d be a lot more comfortable somewhere more private with, oh, I don’t know, call me crazy, this thing called a bed.”

“You said you wanted to help me feel better.” Arthur took the attendant’s chair and wedged it against the door, which had no lock. (He wasn’t confident that it would actually stop someone who was determined to get in, but he found he wasn’t all that worried about the risks at the moment.) He stepped back to the wall, cleared coat hangers out of his way, unbuttoned and unzipped his trousers and let them fall to his feet. “Well, now’s your chance.”

A deep flush rushed across Arthur’s face. Here he was, emphatically insistent that Merlin fuck him right now, and his body wasn’t the slightest bit aroused. Merlin took it in stride, stepped forward, ran the palm of his hand across the left breast of Arthur’s suit jacket.

“Then you’d better let me help you with this,” he whispered, slipping Arthur’s jacket off his shoulders. He placed it neatly on a hanger to avoid wrinkles then pulled off his cap and tossed it onto the shelf with his clipboard. “Why do I get the feeling that someday you’re going to gloat about how you won the battle of wills and convinced me to fuck you in a goddamned cloakroom?”

Arthur quirked up his eyebrows and flashed Merlin a grin. How was it that Merlin knew him so well already?

Merlin stepped in even closer, put his hands up to Arthur’s cheeks and kissed him slow and easy.

People who were just fucking weren’t supposed to kiss like this, were they? Did they even kiss at all? He and Merlin kissed quite a lot every time they were together, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Merlin let one hand trail down his torso, shifted over to kiss at Arthur’s neck. Arthur tugged at his tie to give him better access then brought his hands down to Merlin’s hips to pull him closer.

It took longer than usual for Arthur to get hard, though Merlin went straight to work, sliding his hand down his shaft, working his foreskin over the head, rubbing a finger over the frenulum. He knew he needed to relax, but it was easier said than done. He’d worked himself into a mood and no matter how much he wanted to just let his sex drive take over, the transition took time.

Merlin ghosted his hot breath over Arthur’s ear, whispered, “When we’re done here, you’re going to go back to your office, sit at your big fancy desk, and you’re not going to be able to concentrate. You’re going to be thinking about this, thinking about me…” Arthur shivered at the thought.

When Arthur finally began to involuntarily press his hips forward into Merlin’s hand, Merlin said, “That’s it,” and ground his fully clothed erection against Arthur’s bare hip. Arthur groaned, knowing what that cock was going to be doing next.

Merlin dropped to his knees and unlaced one of Arthur’s shoes. Arthur wasn’t immediately sure what the purpose was, but when Merlin put his hands on his calf and indicated for him to lift his foot, Arthur went along without question. Merlin slipped the shoe off and pulled Arthur’s trousers and pants off his foot so that he now only had one leg in, giving him a wider range of motion.

“Here. Can you put your foot up on my shoulder?”

Arthur did, tried to bear most of his weight on his other leg, pushed more hangers out of the way and grabbed hold of the wooden rail to help steady himself. Then Merlin was taking the packet of lube Arthur had given him from his pocket and tearing it open.

Arthur found himself momentarily mesmerized by Merlin’s hands as the man squeezed out a portion of the lube onto his index and middle finger, had to stop himself from shifting his weight in anticipation as Merlin’s fingers moved forward to touch him. He bent his neck as far as he could, watched those lovely fingers disappear between his legs, then felt them warm and slick against his hole. A single finger was always easy to take, and Merlin had barely got his finger in before he was taking it out and testing with two.

Arthur took a deep breath, tried to relax, and felt himself seize up instead. What the hell was he thinking? It had taken him ages to let any of his exes do this to him. Now he was letting Merlin, whose last name he’d only just learned a few minutes ago? And without a condom, too. Arthur’d never been fucked bare before. Not ever. Clear health screenings or no, it was still a stupid idea.

He moaned suddenly. While he’d been having his mini meltdown, Merlin had gone back to the single finger and was now rubbing mercilessly at his prostate. God, that felt good. He needed to do this more often. No reason to be nervous for a little fingering.

When Merlin tried adding a second finger again, it slipped right it. Arthur let out a heavy sigh of contentment. He’d never got so relaxed this quickly before and that fucking was really starting to sound appealing again, even bare. Especially bare. He would walk around the rest of the afternoon immune to criticism and self-doubt, like Merlin’s come was a strange sort of vaccine.

He slipped his foot off Merlin’s shoulder, turned himself around with his hands against the wall. He was ready for this. Past ready.

“Come _on_ , Merlin.”

“I wasn’t done. You’re not ready yet.” He’d hefted himself off the floor and was palming the left globe of Arthur’s arse with one hand.

“Feel ready. Think I know my own body a little better than you do.”

“You’re a bit of a prat, aren’t you?”

Arthur laughed. “And you’re an ignorant country boy if you don’t know what you’re supposed to do when a man presents you with his slicked-up arsehole.” He tilted his pelvis and spread his legs a bit wider so Merlin could get a good view.

“Fucking hell, Arthur.”

Arthur looked back over his shoulder to see Merlin working to squeeze every last drop of lube out of the packet. He smeared his own cock with the slick, used what was left to press his fingers back into Arthur a few more times, then he was shuffling forward and into position behind him.

Arthur turned back to look at the wall, dropped his head down toward the floor in concentration. This was the critical part. He felt the head of Merlin’s cock nudging at his entrance, felt Merlin’s hand rubbing at his arse, gripping onto his hip, felt Merlin’s lips leaving kisses along his back.

“I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times, but you have a really fabulous arse.”

Arthur snickered at the unexpected compliment. “Pretty sure no one’s ever said that to me before.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Why would I? I’m completely serious.”

“There’s something very wrong with the men you’ve been dating.”

Arthur tried pressing his arse back against Merlin’s cock, but Merlin just followed him back and didn’t even make an attempt at breaching him.

“Come on, then. Stop stalling.”

“I take back what I said about you being a bit of a prat.” Before Arthur could crow victory, Merlin said, “You are a prat of colossal proportions.”

Then he was pressing in, and Arthur wasn’t able to formulate a comeback, because, hell, Merlin had been right. He really wasn’t ready for this. This always happened when he tried bottoming. He would get all worked up with the preparations and foreplay, then was always surprised at how much bigger the real thing felt. He didn’t have it in him to back down or call for a break, not after he’d been so insistent. He tried willing himself to relax and pushed himself back on Merlin’s cock, felt grateful that he was facing the other way because Merlin would be upset if he could see the grimace on Arthur’s face.

“Slow down! You trying to kill me? This isn’t a race.” Merlin grabbed both his hips and didn’t go any further.

Arthur was pretty sure he’d managed to take the full tip, but that was it. He let out a whine of frustration. God, this was embarrassing. Most people would just do what Arthur said because they were oblivious to Arthur’s distress, they didn’t have enough courage to call him out for lying, or they just didn’t care. Those that did say something were the ones that would refuse him outright.

Merlin wasn’t like any of those people. As if he had some strange, innate understanding of Arthur’s moods, he wrapped an arm around Arthur’s middle, pressed his cheek to his back and just held him for a few moments. “It’s all right. I’ll give you what you want, but I need to start slow. If we were doing this right, I’d take all night with you.”

Merlin reached for Arthur’s cock again, which had gone soft, and started teasing him with light touches, making no move to deepen the penetration. He was so… sweet, loving even, and Arthur suddenly felt like he was on the verge of breaking down, that it was only Merlin that was holding him together. The feeling wasn’t frightening like it should have been. It was exhilarating.

With that realization made, it didn’t take long for Arthur to relax, and that was when Merlin began making shallow movements. They were more like soft presses than real thrusts, but they did the job, working him in deeper and deeper with each little press.

“I’ll get you nice and deep, if that’s how you like it,” Merlin whispered. All Arthur could do was choke out a wordless reply.

When Merlin finally managed to get his cock fully seated, he said, “You don’t bottom very often do you?”

Arthur had expected his enthusiasm would have thrown Merlin off, thought he might have attributed any nervousness to the setting since he’d warned beforehand that this wasn’t the ideal place.

“Am I too tight for you?” Arthur’d had complaints before. Just from one boyfriend, but he’d said it more than once. Said Arthur needed to bottom more so that he could get nice and stretched out. Looking back, Arthur wasn’t sure why he’d ever even agreed to go on a single date with Valiant, let alone stayed with him for six months.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I only meant that I’m lucky, aren’t I?”

“Lucky?”

Merlin let out a short laugh. “How can you not know how incredible you are?” He pulled out about halfway, pressed all the way in again. “There. How’s that? Feel all right?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean that?” He did it again.

“Yeah. It’s good.”

Merlin kept at it, slow and steady, until Arthur was panting. It didn’t feel like Merlin had changed anything, but Arthur suddenly let out a deep moan. He said, “like that,” just in case Merlin hadn’t got the picture on his own, and Merlin picked up the pace to give him more of that same feeling.

When Merlin reached for Arthur’s cock, Arthur batted his hand away and said, “I’ll take care of that. You just… focus on…” He had to pause and squeeze at the back of his cock so he could concentrate. “Coming good and deep like you promised.”

“Fuck!”

Merlin gripped one hand hard around his hip, the other up on his shoulder. Used the leverage to encourage Arthur to slam himself back in counterpoint to Merlin’s relentless thrusts. The sounds of their bodies colliding echoed softy in the small room. Then Arthur was squeezing his eyes shut tight and he was coming all over the wall in front of him. Merlin wrapped his arm all the way across Arthur’s front, held him tight as he spurted himself dry while fully sheathed.

They stayed right where they were, not moving for several long moments as they caught their breath. Arthur’s shirt was clinging to him and he had a trickle of sweat running down the side of his face. Merlin slipped out of him, and Arthur turned around to lean against the wall. Merlin was quite a sight—eyes a bit unfocused, trousers around his ankles, but pants only down to mid-thigh. And all his focus was on Arthur. Merlin was so intent, it made him a little self-conscious. He wanted to pull his trousers back on, but he was a mess. He could feel the lube sliding around between his cheeks, drops of it slipping down his thighs. He’d got a little come on the tails of his shirt too. He looked around for tissues or kitchen roll or a random handkerchief, wished he was the sort of man that wore a pocket square.

“Hold on,” Merlin said, and instead of redressing, stepped out of his shoes without unlacing them, pulled off his trousers and pants, then put the trousers and shoes back on. Merlin offered his red boxer briefs to Arthur, saying, “Don’t want you getting your fancy expensive trousers soiled with lube and whatnot.”

When he hesitated to take them Merlin said, “What, afraid of my germs suddenly? It’s a bit late for that. You just had my dick up your arse.”

It was a fair point. Arthur took the pants and while he used them to clean up his tender bottom, Merlin unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and used the cuffs to dry the sweat off Arthur’s forehead. When he was done with that, he rolled the sleeves up, raked his fingers through his hair, and put his hat back on. All in all, he looked rather presentable, nothing like a man that’d just given another man one hell of a fucking.

Arthur wiped off the wall, tried to clean up his shirt as best as he could, then Merlin was helping him back on with his jacket and messing with his hair. He smoothed his hands over the jacket, dusted off the shoulders, then leaned in to lay a short, close mouthed kiss on Arthur’s lips.

“You look really good in that suit,” Merlin said. “Almost as good as you look out of it.”

Arthur rolled his eyes.

“Suppose this means it’s time to get back to work.” Merlin checked his watch—still the cheap digital one from earlier. It made a little more sense now, knowing that Merlin didn’t have a mobile that he could use to check the time. “Think your dad will be angry you were gone so long?”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. I doubt he waited around though. After five minutes he probably headed back to the office. Hopefully he’s blown off a little steam in the meantime.” Arthur certainly had in his own way. “You’re not going to lose your job for the delay, are you?” Merlin had been really worried about that last time.

Merlin laughed. “Oh, old Gaius can’t fire me. Besides, I’ll just tell him I got stuck in traffic. I’ll be fine. I don’t usually run deliveries anyway—I’m just filling in for a sick coworker—so no one expects me to be the most efficient.”

Merlin stepped toward the door. Arthur grabbed his elbow. “Wait. We still need to talk.”

Merlin’s posture went rigid, but he tried to play it off, said, “About what?” offhandedly, as if he weren’t as nervous as he looked.

“About what we’re doing.”

Merlin gave a little chuckle, “Didn’t think I had to explain that to you. You seemed pretty familiar with—”

“No, you know what I’m talking about. On a bigger scale than that.” Arthur paused. “I don’t think we should keep having sex like this.”

Merlin’s brow furrowed, and he took a half step away.

“Fine.” He sounded hurt, but determined not to let it show. “Could have just said. This whole cloakroom sex thing was your idea.”

“No, I don’t mean… I mean, we can still have sex, but… Well, let me take you out to dinner.”

“Dinner?”

“Yeah, you know, where people eat food and talk, and hopefully enjoy each other’s company.”

A slow, soft smile took over Merlin’s expression. “You want to take me on a date.” He sounded like he was gloating just a little.

“Yes, _Merlin_. I’ve been trying to ask you out since the very beginning!”

Arthur expected him to laugh, but he didn’t.

He said, “Could you be any more endearing?”

“Is that a yes, then?”

Merlin nodded. “I’d love to go out with you. To eat and talk. And hopefully enjoy each other’s company.”

“You’re a strange man, Merlin.” Arthur paused, trying to remember his schedule. “So… Friday, then. For dinner.” He was already planning where they would go in his head.

Merlin frowned. “I can’t Friday.”

“Okay. How about Saturday?”

“Sorry, Saturday’s no good either. I have to run up to my mum’s to help with some maintenance around the house. I won’t be back until late Sunday night.”

“Look, Merlin,” Arthur said in a huff, “if you don’t want to go out with me, you can just say so.”

“No, I do, I swear! I’d be a fool to let someone like you slip away. I meant what I said. I think you’re incredible, and I don’t just mean when it comes to sex.”

“You don’t know me yet.”

“Not nearly so well as I’d like to, that’s true. But I know you’re the sort of person that will drag himself out of a warm, comfortable bed in the wee hours of the morning to help a friend in need. And I know you were voted Albion’s young business leader of the year last year. Employees get a say in the decision making. You don’t get an honour like that without the backing of those working beneath you. I’ve worked for a lot of bosses over the years, and the ones that get that kind of support are the ones that not only know the mandatory aspects of their jobs, but treat their employees with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

Arthur’s father kept telling him he was too close to his employees. ‘You can’t be their friend and their boss, Arthur.’ Arthur didn’t agree, but sometimes he doubted himself. It felt good to have his own view validated for a change.

“And most importantly, I know how I feel when I’m around you.”

“And how’s that? Well fucked?”

Merlin rolled his eyes. “How about this, I’ll take down your number right now and as soon as I can, I’ll give you a call and we can set something up. I promise, my life’s just insanely hectic for the next few weeks and I’d like to be able to cancel everything for this, but I just can’t.”

He did sound truly regretful. Arthur was forced to relent or come off like an obsessive creep.

“Okay, we have a plan, then.”

Merlin picked up his clipboard and in the upper corner of the top sheet, wrote down the number Arthur gave him.

Arthur set the chair back where he’d found it, then turned the door knob, and stepped out into the main entryway of the restaurant.

The maître d’ was returning from showing patrons to a table and eyed them with suspicion.

“Yes, sir. Absolutely,” Merlin said out of nowhere. “We take customer concerns very seriously. Thank you for your candor and discretion.” Merlin dipped his head as if he were overeager to show deference and the maître d’s suspicion turned to disinterest. When Merlin looked up, he winked at Arthur and turned for the door, his rolled-up pants-turned-washrag held discreetly between his torso and his clipboard.

Merlin said Arthur was incredible, but Arthur thought Merlin was the one that was impressive. With the limited exception of certain questions from Arthur, it was like nothing could faze him.

Arthur went back to his table, expecting to just pick up his briefcase and head back to the office, but Uther was still there, talking away on his mobile, while shuffling between papers on the table. He barely looked at Arthur as he sat back down, which was good, because he did so gingerly.

Shortly after, Uther ended the call. He said, “Where were we?”

“Sorry. That took a lot longer than I expected.”

“Hope you weren’t wanting dessert. I had time to order and eat mine while you were on your call.”

Arthur wanted to say, ‘Don’t worry. I already had my dessert.’

He squirmed in his chair, wasn’t sure if it was that his makeshift flannel hadn’t done a very good job of wiping away all the lube, or if it was slowly making its way out of his body along with Merlin’s come. Either way, it wasn’t entirely unpleasant, just distracting.

“You feeling all right, Arthur? You look a bit flushed.”

“Fine.” Better than fine. Arthur redirected his father’s attention back to work, finally got him talking about their five-year plan, but Merlin had been right. It was difficult to concentrate on work.


	5. Where We Go from Here

The weekend rolled by slowly. Arthur sat at home Friday evening and all day Saturday with nothing to do of interest. He had no desire to go out to the pub knowing Merlin wouldn’t be there. By Sunday morning he’d had enough laying around and went to the gym to burn off energy and frustration. He’d have gone the day before, but wanted to avoid Gwaine. His friend would have teased Arthur without mercy if he’d seen the state of him, and justifiably so. He should be able to handle a few days without talking to Merlin and yet somehow the lack felt unbearable.

He kept thinking about how genuinely apologetic Merlin has been about not being able to go out with Arthur over the weekend, so when Monday finally rolled around, he decided to take an early lunch and visit Merlin at work. He’d said he didn’t usually run deliveries, so Arthur felt he had a good chance of catching him in the office.  

The courier service wasn’t all that far away, and Arthur had enough time to walk. He paused for a moment midway to his destination to read a double-sided chalkboard sitting out on the pavement. The sign advertised the specials for the adjacent florist’s shop, ranging from two dozen red roses for 60 pounds to a bouquet of 50 daffodils for 15. He walked by, deciding against flowers all together. The roses were too much. Not the cost, that was no issue, but the statement the flowers made. He wanted to impress Merlin, not scare him off. But then, he also didn’t want to be seen as cheap by getting Merlin the least expensive flowers available.

It wasn’t until he was standing outside the courier’s office that he realized Merlin must have lied to him again because the services hours were clearly marked on the door as 8 to 5, but he’d claimed he had to be at work at 10 pm or get sacked, so unless he was a drug dealer on the side or something… No, Arthur wasn’t going to start thinking that way again. He was going to trust Merlin. Maybe there’d been something that had to be handled after hours. Merlin could have been doing upgrades for their computer system for all he knew. IT at Arthur’s company was always timing big overhauls after hours when no one needed to be on the network anyway.

When he stepped through the front door, a kid in his late teens or early twenties with curly, dark hair greeted him. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Merlin.”

“He’s not here.”

Arthur frowned. “Is he on a delivery?”

“No.”

“Out at lunch?”

“No.”

When the boy didn’t volunteer any more information, Arthur said, “Will he be in tomorr—”

“Who are you?”

Arthur frowned at the blatant suspicion in the kid’s tone. “My name’s Arthur.”

“What do you want with Merlin?”

What didn’t Arthur want? He wanted to fuck him and kiss him and hold him. He wanted to talk for hours and fall in love.

“I just want to talk.”

“Hmmm.”

Arthur tried to reason out why the boy was so suspicious. Had Merlin said something about him?

“When will he be back?”

The boy wrinkled his nose. “Sometime next week, maybe. I’m not in charge of his schedule.”

“Is he on holiday?” From what Merlin had said, Arthur had the impression that he would be working every day this week.

The kid spluttered an incredulous laugh. “Merlin on holiday? You’ve got to be joking. He deserves it more than anyone but rarely even takes a weekend. He’s the hardest working person I’ve ever met.”

There was a hint of admiration in his tone, and Arthur wondered if this kid knew exactly who Arthur was and didn’t want to help out of jealousy for his burgeoning relationship with Merlin.

Arthur didn’t like leaving without having accomplished anything, but didn’t trust this kid with a message. He was about to walk away when a tall, well-muscled man came through a doorway along the back wall and said, “Hey Mordred. Gaius is asking for you.”

The boy gave Arthur one last glare and left the way the bigger man had come.

The new bloke was fit, and Arthur felt a momentary worry that Merlin worked so closely with such an attractive man. He wasn’t Arthur’s type, but maybe he was Merlin’s.

The man was looking him over. Unprompted, he said, “Don’t suppose you’re Arthur Pendragon?”

So either Merlin _had_ been talking about him, or this bloke followed the biotech industry. The former seemed more likely.

“I am.”

The man’s face split into a wide smile. “Looking for Merlin then? He only helps out here a couple days a week. He’s at his real job now.”

“His _real_ job?”

“Yeah. Down at Queen’s Hope.”

Queen’s Hope. That was the hospital Merlin had used for that unnecessary, but ultimately useful STI testing. Was he a doctor? Surely he wouldn’t be able to keep a second job if he were a doctor, even if it was only part time. Maybe he was a lab technician of some kind or a nurse.

Seeing Arthur’s confusion, the tall man said, “He works in radiology.”

 Arthur churned this new information over in his head a few times, and suddenly, it made a lot more sense that Merlin had worried about losing his job for being late on one occasion, but brushed off the possibility that he could ever be sacked on another.

“I’ll tell him you stopped by.”

Arthur thanked the man and turned to leave.

“Hey, Arthur?”

Arthur paused, turned back halfway, and looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“Merlin’s a great guy. Don’t hurt him, all right?”

Arthur smiled, glad that Merlin had at least one supportive friend who was looking out for his best interests. He wasn’t sold yet on that Will bloke that Merlin had mentioned last time.

“I don’t intend to.”

Arthur had the unreasonable compulsion to take the rest of the day off and surprise Merlin at the hospital, but that felt like a step too far. He would look needy if he followed Merlin over to the hospital as well. Besides, he had a meeting at work in half an hour that he needed to get back for. He had to content himself with the knowledge that it would get back to Merlin eventually that Arthur had stopped to visit him at the courier’s office. Arthur hoped that the news, whenever Merlin received it, would brighten his day.

For the rest of the week, Arthur made sure to keep his mobile close at all times. Every time it rang, his eyes darted immediately to the screen, and every time it listed a recognizable name, his heart sank. He kept waiting for that string of numbers that didn’t have an associated name in his contacts list. Something that could be Merlin. It was all he could think about.

It didn’t seem unreasonable to expect that the call would be coming any day, at any moment. Arthur just didn’t understand this whole business of not having a phone. It wasn’t like a new mobile was a difficult item to acquire. Even with as much as Merlin seemed to work, he must have a few minutes here or there that he could devote to buying a new one. And that was a whole other issue. Why would he insist on working so many days without a break? Taking a weekend to do chores for someone else, even if that person was your mother, hardly counted. Everyone needed down time on a regular basis, no matter how much they liked their job… or jobs, as the case may be. Merlin would burn himself out if he really worked as much as that Mordred kid had indicated.

The anticipation—not just for the call, but of seeing Merlin again, being able to have a real conversation for once, being able to kiss and touch him again—was driving Arthur mad. He was losing sleep over it. His nerves felt frayed, and by the end of the week, he’d started snapping at every caller because they weren’t Merlin. He’d never experienced anything like it. He hardly even felt like himself anymore. For his own mental welfare, he had to do something to fix it. So finally, on Friday, he made peace with the fact that he was going to look like the obsessed prat that he was, took a few hours off work under the pretense of a medical appointment, went down to the hospital where Merlin worked, took the lift up to the radiology department, and talked with the matronly woman at the check-in desk.

She said, “Hang on a minute. I’ll let him know you’re here.”

She left her station, then came back a few minutes later with Merlin trailing along behind her. He wore a pair of plain blue scrubs, but no white doctor’s coat.

“Arthur? What are you doing here?”

He didn’t sound upset, more curious, but Arthur went on the defensive anyway. “That friend of yours at your family’s business told me you work here.”

“Who?”

“Not the kid with the crush on you.”

Merlin raised an eyebrow, looking genuinely confused.

“The tall, muscly fellow.” Merlin still didn’t look convinced, and Arthur started to panic a little. “Light hair, maybe 6’-4”, 6’-5”?”

Merlin shook his head in deep concentration. “Don’t think I know anyone like that.”

Arthur could feel the blood draining from his face and his eyes going wide as that initial trickle of panic turned into a full-on flood. He didn’t know what else to say other than, “Maybe I’m not remembering him quite right. I swear I haven’t been… stalking you or anything.”

Merlin’s expression burst into a delighted grin, and he held a hand up to his mouth to stifle a laugh. “Arthur, I’m teasing you. Percy did mention it. Come on.” Merlin gestured to the side and ushered him into an unoccupied room to talk privately.

Arthur let out a shaky breath, feeling too relieved to be more than mildly irritated at Merlin’s terrible idea of a joke. He took a brief look around. There was a kitchenette just inside the doorway, a couple of tables between Arthur and the far wall, and an uncomfortable looking sofa over on the left.

Once the door clicked shut behind them, Arthur turned back to Merlin and said what he’d meant to say first thing. “I’m sorry to interrupt you at work like this.”

Merlin shrugged. His smile had faded somewhat, but hadn’t disappeared. “I was due for a break anyway.” He leaned against the cabinets, made a show of letting his eyes wander down Arthur’s body, taking in the crisp lines of his business suit. “So what brings you here? I assume it’s not because you’re in need of an x-ray or an MRI.”

“Erm… no. It’s just that, well…” Before Arthur made a fool of himself, he decided he’d better start at the beginning. “The last time we saw each other, you seemed disappointed about being busy the nights I asked you out, so I thought you might like it if I stopped by to say hello at the courier service.”

“Guess I never really explained that I don’t work there very often.”

“No, but your friend—Percy?—he filled me in. He said he would tell you I came by, and I meant to leave it at that. It’s not my intention to pester you—" Arthur wasn’t used to needing to explain himself in so much detail. It put him even more off balance than he already felt and gave him the impression that in the whole world, only Merlin could put him to rights again. “—but it’s been over a week, and I began to think that maybe you’d changed your mind and I would just never hear from you, never know for sure…”  

The more he talked, the worse it sounded. Merlin was going to be completely freaked out by the intensity of his obsession. “You know what? This was a bad idea. I’m really sorry I bothered you.”

He started toward the door. He would go back home, wait for Merlin to call him like a normal person—hope Merlin was still willing to give him a chance.

“Hey,” Merlin grabbed onto his arm as he walked past. “You don’t have to go. You came all this way to see me, right?”

Arthur looked down at where Merlin’s hand was wrapped around his arm. When he looked back up, his eyes caught on Merlin’s lips. Merlin noticed. His tongue darted out in a nervous little gesture to wet his bottom lip, and Arthur felt himself beginning to fall into the same trap he always did with Merlin, wanting to kiss and more. He couldn’t stop staring, was reminded suddenly that he still hadn’t repaid Merlin for that blowjob at the pub. His gaze drifted lower.

After a long moment, Merlin cleared his throat, perhaps seeing where Arthur’s thoughts were headed, and like a responsible adult, realizing this wasn’t the time or place. He did not, however, make any attempt to put more distance between the two of them. He said, “I, uh… I nearly called you. Sunday. From my mum’s phone.” Merlin gave a little cough. “But then she would want to know all about you, and to be honest, I’m not ready to tell her that I’m trying to set up a first date with my serial one-night stand.”

“Is that all I am?”

“I hope not. I just… I think it would be hard to explain to someone else.” Merlin’s voice grew softer as he spoke.

Arthur leaned unconsciously forward, then forced himself to pull back when he noticed what he was doing. He couldn't allow himself to be distracted today. He said, “Like your friend Will?”

Merlin frowned, finally let go of Arthur’s arm. “He’ll come around.” He paused. “I think. It’ll be fine.” He paused again, longer this time. “I just want to get to know you a little before I tell my mother about you. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

“No. Of course not.” It’s not like Arthur was planning on telling his father about this any time soon. “I should warn you though. My mate Gwaine is already calling you my boyfriend.”

“Are you… Is that what you’re looking for?”

Arthur felt nervous for some reason. “Yeah, it is. I’ve always favoured long term relationships over simple hookups.”

“I wasn’t sure. It seemed like you might prefer to keep things a bit more… casual than I’m used to.”

A sick tendril of shame sprouted in Arthur’s gut. Here he was, pining away in his head, but acting in a way that had made Merlin think all he wanted was sex. It explained a lot, actually, and wasn’t a misconception that he could let stand.

“That’s because I’m terrible at talking about things when… _feelings_ are involved. Just look at how long it took me to ask you out on a proper date.” Arthur grimaced. He wasn’t winning himself any points here, unless he would get some for honesty. “I do try though. And you… You’re easier to be with than anyone I’ve met before. Or, I get the impression that’s how it could be.”

“Me too.”

The effort it took for Arthur to suppress a grin at the admission made him felt like an idiot.

“Well,” Arthur took a reluctant step back. “I really didn’t mean to take up so much of your time while you’re at work. I uh, I should let you get back to it, I suppose.”

He hadn’t accomplished what he’d come to do, but this felt like the proper time to make an exit. Merlin, apparently, did not agree. As Arthur turned to go, he said, “I know I’ve been acting strangely,” in a rush.  Arthur turned back. “And I have a reason for that. There’s something I’ve been trying to hide from you.”

All those ugly feelings from before about husbands and fake names leapt back to the front of his mind. He wasn’t sure what other kind of secret Merlin could have that he’d be so worried about keeping.

“But you’re going to find out eventually.” Merlin took a deep breath. Arthur’s muscles tensed; it felt like the whole world was about to come crashing down around him. “Arthur… I’m poor.”

“What?” Arthur laughed.

“Living paycheck to paycheck, barely-scraping-by poor.”

This wasn’t the sort of confession he’d been expecting.

“Okay?” He was waiting for more. For the horrible revelation to sink in.

“That’s why I haven’t replaced my phone yet. I’ve been saving every little scrap that I can to buy a new one.”

“Merlin…” He looked the man up and down, still not understanding what his point was or why he was so worried about telling Arthur these things. “Are you… do you gamble or something? You don’t have a drug habit, do you?”

“See I knew it.”

Arthur had no idea what Merlin knew.

“Knew you’d take this the wrong way.”

“O…kay?” So Merlin was pissed off at the accusations, which Arthur could admit, maybe he deserved, but really, what other explanation was there?

“Rich people like you don’t understand how hard it is out there for regular people.”

Rich people like him? What was that supposed to mean? It wasn’t his fault he was well off.

“You automatically assume I’ve done something wrong. That I deserve to be living hand to mouth.”

“No, that wasn’t what I meant.”

“Sure. You know what, I don’t know why I even bothered. I put all that effort in, trying to impress you with great sex so that you won’t just think of me as some pathetic loser when you found out and you still…”

“Now hang on a minute, I didn’t say—”

“You might as well have.”

“No, I only meant that you have two jobs, and I know one pays a decent wage. I’m only curious is all about how that’s not enough to live on.”

Merlin let out a bitter laugh. “You are so out of touch. Sure, I have a good job now. For the whole eight months since I finished university. University that cost an arm and a leg. I’m drowning in student debt, Arthur. We can’t all have wealthy fathers that pay our way through life.

“You have such a nice flat.”

Arthur wanted to counter that his place really wasn’t all that great. His father was constantly saying so. It was small enough that he didn’t even have to hire staff to help with the upkeep. As Merlin carried on, he was glad he held his tongue.

“I can’t even begin to guess how much your rent is each month. You’d cringe if you saw my little place—a tiny studio flat with a pull-down bed and cheap laminate flooring. I didn’t want you to think I wanted to be with you because you have money.”

“I didn’t… The thought never crossed my mind.”

“I’ve had a lot of experience dealing with wealthy people—at the university I went to and at the courier service. I know what upper class society is like. How do you think your father and his ilk would look at me if they saw us out on this proposed date of ours?”

“I don’t care what they think. I like you. That’s all that matters.” Arthur shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’d even want to see me if you think that’s the kind of person I am.”

“It’s not your fault how you were raised. And even though you have certain… expectations, deep down, I think you’re a good man. That night your friend’s dad died, you kissed me on the forehead before you left, and I felt— I don’t know. Like maybe it meant something. I thought it might be worth the risk.”

Arthur didn’t know what to say.

“I’ve offended you.” Merlin frowned, letting his gaze trail down to the floor. “Of course I have. I made assumptions before even giving you a chance.” He looked back up. “I’m sorry.”

Arthur had been on the receiving end of too many empty apologies to count. This apology from Merlin didn’t feel like that. As Arthur’s indignation began to subside, he thought back to the business of Merlin saving his money for a phone.

“You know, if it’s only money that’s the problem. I could buy you a new phone.”

“I don’t want you to do that, Arthur. I can save for it myself.”

“But it would benefit me too. It’s selfish really.”

Merlin shook his head. “I mean it. There’s no way I could accept something like that.”

All right. So expensive gifts made Merlin uncomfortable. Even if it wasn’t something that seemed expensive to Arthur himself. He suddenly realized that he probably shouldn’t take Merlin to Nimueh’s for their first date like he’d planned. The place was even fancier than Excalibur. After Merlin’s comment on how good Arthur looked in a suit, he’d thought to take him to a restaurant with a formal dress code. Now he realized that such a setting would just make him feel out of place and uncomfortable. That was the opposite of what Arthur wanted.

“I’m working doubles the next few days, but how about next Saturday?” Merlin said. “I promise I won’t pick up another shift.”

“The Round Table,” he said, picking a place that was only half a step up from the Leaping Dragon—casual, but nice. “Seven o’clock.”

“I’ll be there.”

Arthur took in the blatant sincerity written across Merlin’s face. This was going to work out. It had to. It would crush him if it didn’t. “I look forward to it.”

As he rode the lift back to the main floor, Arthur realized that this latest experience with Merlin was the first time they’d interacted without having sex. Somehow, that felt like progress.

At the Round Table, Arthur was finally able to get answers to questions he’d wanted to ask from the very beginning. He learned about Merlin’s family—his mother, Hunith, who sounded lovely, and his Uncle Gaius, the reason he would never be fired from the courier service. How Merlin had grown up lonely because he was an only child, his mother had been forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, and his father didn’t even know he existed.

When the cheque arrived, Arthur said, “You’ll let me pay for this, right?”

“If it makes you happy. As long as you let me pick up the bill next time.”

“You want there to be a next time?”

“Don’t you?”

Arthur nodded. “Yeah. I do.”

At the end of the evening, they made plans to meet again the following week, but Arthur wasn’t ready for it to be over just yet. He gave brief consideration to asking Merlin back to his, but didn’t want Merlin worrying again that Arthur was just after sex. And as much as he _did_ want sex, it wasn’t his top priority at the moment. Merlin was fascinating—unlike anyone he’d ever met. He wanted to keep the conversation going more than anything else.

“Really wish you’d let me buy you that phone, Merlin. Now I’m going to have to wait a whole week to talk to you again.”

“It’s just for a little while.” Then Merlin leaned in to give Arthur a kiss that eased his longing and made it worse all at the same time.

Arthur’d never had a relationship that ran as smoothly as things with Merlin did after that. It was as if they’d got all the drama out of the way early. Not that they never fought; of course they did. But it never lasted long. Arthur just couldn’t manage to stay angry at Merlin past a few hours, and Merlin apparently suffered from the same affliction.

When Arthur finally allowed Gwaine to meet Merlin, it was over pints at the Leaping Dragon. Arthur gave Merlin the full list of warnings—that Gwaine was an obnoxious lout who might try to strike up a bet to take Merlin’s hard-earned money, that he might inflict Merlin with a ridiculous nickname, and that he would very likely try flirting with Merlin, just to rankle Arthur’s feathers. Those were the kinds of things Arthur expected.

Instead, Gwaine shook Merlin’s hand, said, “It’s good to finally meet you, Merlin. Arthur won’t stop talking about you.”

“Oh, that sounds dangerous.”

“Not at all. He’s just utterly gone on you.”

“ _Gwaine_ …” Arthur warned.

The conniving bastard just laughed at his discomfort.

Merlin turned toward him. “Don’t see what you were so worried about, Arthur. Gwaine’s all right. I think we’re going to get on just fine.”

Gwaine gave a curt nod of agreement.

Arthur muttered his response because Merlin and Gwaine were already chatting about one random thing or another. “I think that worries me more than anything else.”

With that out of the way, Arthur’s next big concern was his father, but as it turned out, Uther was not their biggest naysayer.

The day Arthur realized that things were getting serious—when he immediately declined the opportunity to speak at a conference in New York that wasn’t for another seven months because Merlin’s mum’s 50th birthday was the day after, and he wouldn’t be able to make it back in time for the party that Merlin had already asked him to attend—he called his father, told him, “There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind about him, and if you want to fire me or disown me, that’s just how its going to have to be.”

Uther was silent for some time, then he let out a heavy sigh. “He’s Gaius Emerson’s nephew you say?”

“That’s right.”

Uther hummed in apparent displeasure, but said, “I suppose it could be worse. You’d better bring him by to meet me then, if this thing is as serious as you claim. Let me judge for myself whether this nurse is fit for my son.”

Arthur saved the explanation about how a radiation technician wasn’t the same as a nurse for later and worked out the details for bringing Merlin by the family estate for a formal introduction. Before Arthur ended the call, Uther let out a soft laugh and said, “Would be nice, I suppose, to finally see you settle down.”

After the meeting with Uther came and went, it occurred to Arthur that Merlin had met all of his friends and family, and that he’d met most of the people Merlin deemed important in his life, but still hadn’t met Will, that friend that Arthur had seen with Merlin at the pub that first night they went home together. He insisted on an introduction.

Merlin was oddly reluctant, but eventually promised to cook dinner for the three of them if Arthur lent him the use of his kitchen—which was a bit of a silly request considering Merlin spent nearly half his nights at Arthur’s flat already. Arthur kept trying to get him to just ditch his tiny place and move in, but Merlin continued to resist, saying he couldn’t afford to pay half of the expenses just yet.

“Once I pay down these loans a little more, Arthur…” Merlin would say whenever Arthur brought up the topic, and Arthur would roll his eyes. On top of that, Merlin was constantly doing chores and tidying up around Arthur’s flat, saying he felt guilty for spending so much time in the place without giving anything back. Arthur had to kept reminding him that he wanted a boyfriend, not a servant, and that Merlin wouldn’t have to pay half the rent if he moved in. He knew better by now than to suggest that Merlin not pay any rent at all, but Arthur’s compromise that Merlin just pitch in whatever he was paying in rent and utilities now didn’t go over much better.

“I just wouldn’t feel like I was your equal if you were paying so much more than me.” The issue bothered him so much, Arthur had no choice but to acquiesce even though he didn’t agree.

Arthur loved his current flat. It was an easy distance from all the places he needed to go in a typical week, the neighbours were quiet and kept to themselves, the space itself was perfectly laid out, and the view from the sitting room windows was magnificent, but Arthur was already mentally abandoning the place. His next plan was going to be a suggestion that they look for a new flat together. One they could both afford. Hell, he’d be willing to move into Merlin’s flat just to get more time with him, but for the fact that Merlin hated the place himself—not because of its size or the fact that it was a little rundown, but because its location made for an obnoxiously long commute.

On the day of their dinner with Will, Arthur arrived back home from a quick errand to pick up a bottle of table wine. He could hear the rumblings of raised voices before he even got to the door. He stepped inside with caution.

“Look at this fucking place, would you?!” said a voice that had to be Will’s. “Who does he think he is, living in such luxury? I never expected you would date someone just for money.”

“Don’t be an arse, Will. You know that’s not why.”

“The hell I do. Merlin, these floors are solid marble! And your dumpy studio’s a tenth the size. Why else would you want such a posh snob?”

Arthur was beginning to see why Merlin might be holding on so tightly to his insecurities about money.

“You haven’t even given him a chance. He’s a good man, and I’m lucky to be with him.”

“You don’t mean that. You just like to fuck him. Or be fucked by him. I don’t really want the details.”

Merlin’s reply, when it came, was scathing. In the ten months they’d known each other, Arthur had never heard Merlin so angry. He said, “Do you even listen when other people are talking? Or is your inner voice so loud and so rude, you only ever hear your own goddamn voice? Arthur is everything I’m looking for. I’d marry him tomorrow if he’d have me.”

Arthur’s eyes went wide and his heart soared. With all their disagreements about money and moving in, Arthur sometimes worried it was all just an excuse to keep their relationship from moving to a deeper level.

“Will,” Merlin said, making an obvious effort to sound a bit calmer, “just because Bayard Mercer cheated your father out of a stake in his company doesn’t mean that all wealthy businessmen are like that.”

Will scoffed, said, “You’re hopeless.”

The heavy sound of footfalls alerted Arthur to the fact that Will was coming closer—leaving, apparently.

“Come on, Will. Don’t go. You promised me you’d at least meet him.”

Will sneered at Arthur as he brushed past him on his way out.

Merlin’s whole posture sagged when he saw Arthur standing next to the entryway. Arthur set his bag on the floor, walked over to Merlin and put his hands high up on his arms, just below the shoulders.

“I’m sorry.”

“He’s been my friend since I was five. Why can’t he just be happy for me?”

Arthur didn’t have an answer. He pulled Merlin into a hug and held him for several long minutes. When he finally pulled back, Arthur said, “I heard what you said about me, Merlin. I want you to know we’re on the same page.”

“Arthur,” Merlin said with a trace of a frown. “I said I want to marry you.”

“I know.” Arthur grinned. “You do realize that I would expect us to live together though, right?”

“Well, that’s a bit different, isn’t it? Everything we own would be shared. Besides, once my loans are out of the way, I’ll make a pretty decent living and there’s no guarantee that something horrific won’t happen to your company and leave you without a job. We’d both be all in no matter what. For better or worse and all that.”

Arthur moved a hand up to caress Merlin’s cheek. “Sounds perfect.”

“Does… this mean we’re engaged?”

“If you want to be.”

“I never cared about marriage before. My mom never married so I didn’t hold any special regard for it growing up. Guess I changed my mind somewhere along the way.” Merlin’s shy smile was all Arthur needed to understand when the change in thinking had started. “How about you?”

“When I was a boy, I found a picture in the storage room of my parents’ wedding. It’s one of the only pictures I have of my mother. They both looked so happy. I’ve always wanted to have that too.”

“I guess that makes you my fiancé then.”

“Will you let me buy you an expensive ring?”

“I don’t need a ring, let alone an expensive one.”

“I know. That wasn’t what I asked.”

Merlin gave him an indulgent smile. “You can spend as much as you like.” A few moments later he burst into a sudden fit of laughter.

“What?” Arthur couldn’t fathom what could possibly be so funny.

“What are we going to tell people about how we met? You know they’re going to ask. We can’t exactly tell your Great-Aunt Helen that our relationship started as a one-night stand.”

“Why can’t we just tell them what you told your mother? We met at our favourite pub.”

“That won’t do. Once people know this is permanent, they’re going to want more details. They’ll be expecting a romantic story.”

“And we can’t let them down with something mundane?”

“Well, we could, but then I imagine Gwaine boldly telling the whole room in his best man’s speech that you skipped out on drinks with him to take me home for the night, and that you didn’t even remember my name afterward.”

“Never fear, Merlin. If that happens, all we have to do to appease the romantics is say that it was love at first sight.”

To be honest, it wasn’t all that far from the truth.


End file.
